Consequences of antibiotics after bariatric surgery

This can only happen to me. There is nothing else to say. Only I can end up with infection and antibiotics…

How it all started

I had the surgery, and I was at home already and starting to do light homework as usual—that time we used to have pet mice. We bought one, but long story short, we suddenly had babies and cages all over the apartment. It was time to clean them, so I started as usual.

Our mice were all very well-behaved and I never had any problems with them. They were never escaping, weren’t aggressive, and were nothing like that. I had 3 cages done, the last one was missing. It was our special-need mouse. He was born blind and was a little slow. What can happen, right?

Till today I have no idea what scared him that much, he started jumping like crazy, half a meter up, squeaking and running on the table. So the only thing that I came up with was to catch him with my hand. I did. And Peque the mouse did exactly what you expect him to do. He bit me as he was scared.

But it was no tiny bite as mice sometimes do, I call it nibbling, they show you love like that. This was a very straightforward and deep bite. Obviously, a mouse doesn’t brush its teeth, nor use mouthwash.

Emergency room

This was a perfect storm. Chain reaction at its best. My finger got infected and it didn’t want to go away, despite I cleaned it with an antibiotic cream at once. Ok, so let’s go to the emergency.

We come here, and the nurse asks me what is wrong. And I tell her: my mouse bit me. I thought her eyebrows traveled around her head and through her nose. Maybe she was not a huge fan of small rodents at home. I added: it got infected, could somebody have a look at it, please?

She calls the doctor and tells him: a rat bit her. Omg! Horror story unleashed… 😀

Nothing. They pinched me a tetanus to reinforce my normal shot, just in case, and gave me antibiotics in pills for a week. I was vocalizing quite loudly that it was a week since I had had the sleeve. The doctor said it was not a problem, that I would be fine, that it would cure the infection, and that in case it didn’t get better, I should come back.

We pick up the meds and we go home. I was a little reluctant at first to take the pills, but the finger was really red and I felt my heart pulsing in it, so it was pretty clear that I wouldn’t walk this off just like that.

The side effects

Three hours later… holly Molly… cramps in my stomach, and sharp pain, I started sweating and rushed to the toilet. That was really fast. The previous days I was complaining that my bowel movement was nonexistent, so now I had it all sorted out. It was horrendous.

For the next seven days, it repeated itself every single day. Of course, I called my surgeon asking if it was ok or what I should do. He laughed, said hello to my mice, and approved the antibiotics. It could go even worse if untreated.

I had to go on. As much as I loved my mice, I was somewhat reluctant to put my hand in the cage of Peque again. But he was calm all the time and that accident never happened again.

I had the worst week ever. Everybody who had bariatric surgery knows how bad the first week is. You are lucky that you get your fluids in and you can only think about some protein. It just doesn’t feel right and you are incredibly full all the time. You are sore from the surgery, still bloated from the gas, and you are doing your best to walk as much as you can. And yes, I added the antibiotics with all the side effects.

That was bad. Bit I mean bad bad. I was suffering like an animal hoping for the best and wishing it was all over soon. It worked, my finger healed, Peque had a clean cage and everything was ok. But still, today I remember this story.

Reasons to undergo bariatric surgery

Lesson learned

Be careful about what you are doing right after your surgery. It is ok to cook for your family, it is ok to walk outside, it is ok to go shopping. But if you have to manipulate your animals and their poop, maybe ask your better half to do it that time. If you scratch yourself, if the animal bites you and it gets infected, you will suffer. And that it is very likely to get infected, it is pretty sure. Your body is fighting on the other front, it can’t do everything at once. It went through a major surgery and anything that you add, is like pouring oil into a fire. Don’t do that. Be very careful.

I messed up, so learn the lesson from me, so that you are spared 👍